Charnise Littles, IBCLC: Finding balance with a TLN partnership
“When I started working with The Lactation Network, I thought, ‘maybe launching my private practice was going to be easier than I expected.’ I was able to be more present for my kid, and I was also able to go to grad school.”
Charnise Littles, IBCLC is the founder and executive director of Birth & Milk Co., but around 2020, she was practicing lactation care in a complex, taxing hospital setting — in the midst of a global pandemic.
“We weren’t allowed to work on latching. Sometimes, a mother had COVID so her baby couldn’t be in the room.” Although stressful, Littles says she was dedicated to advocating for breastfeeding families both in the hospital and outside of it. “I was one of two LCs that was still doing home visits during COVID; parents weren’t getting adequate support in the hospital. I don’t think people understood the role of the lactation consultant during [the pandemic]. We were in the thick of it too. Working with parents at home allowed us to have a level of quality control.”
Although the hospital Littles worked for was good about “warm handoffs” where she could continue to see her hospital patients at home post-delivery, she didn’t have a way to fully verify their coverage and ensure they got all of the visits they needed with an already busy schedule. Plus, her work-life balance was nearly non-existent.
“Because I was having such long days at work and away from my son during COVID, I really needed to figure out [how to scale] my private practice. After finding TLN, I thought, ‘maybe this was going to be easier than I expected.’”
Littles went from working in the hospital from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., seeing patients at their homes, and getting back to the house at 6:30-7 p.m. “Those were long crazy days,” she laughed. After joining The Lactation Network? “I can actually drop my kid off at school.” Though initially nervous about moving the majority of her practice out of the hospital setting and building her private practice, saving time and reducing stress was paramount for Littles. She decided to make the transition for herself and her family — but she needed a bit more support.
“You hear about what it takes to get in network with insurance companies and it’s daunting,” she notes. “The Lactation Network has contracts with insurance companies so we’re not guessing. We’re not calling insurance companies on the back end. I’m not fussing over claims. I get to keep doing the things I love, and I don’t have to struggle as much. TLN is a great segue for IBCLCs getting into private practice for the first time.”
Now, Littles’ practice is thriving. “I need to expand even more in terms of the providers of my team. I’m too booked out — I have an overwhelming amount of clients at the moment.” With the time she’s afforded with TLN’s billing support, Littles gets to ask questions about what her community needs and expand her ability to provide care where she believes it’s needed most: At home.
“I personally don’t like moving folks out of their homes. Postpartum is hard enough. They have to leave to do post-delivery and pediatric visits… it’s too much. If we can keep people home and optimize on that, it means more empathy and compassion.”
The Lactation Network exists to help IBCLCs reach and provide insurance-covered lactation care to families — while getting the billing support and resources they need to thrive. Joining The Lactation Network is free, easy, and great for IBCLCs growing their practices. Join today.
We handle billing, end-to-end. We connect you with insurance-covered patients. We help you grow your practice, your way.
